Political Language in Contrast: An Introduction

This editorial is an introduction to the special issue Political Language in Contrast. We first provide a theoretical grounding for the field, by introducing the objectives and main analytic procedures of empirical cross-cultural pragmatic research. We then discuss why this area is particularly suitable for the study of political language use. Following this, we overview the contents of the special issue. Finally, we briefly discuss vistas for future research. •Demonstrates the benefits of studying political language use from a cross-cultural angle.•Provides a model for the operationalisation of cross-cultural pragmatics in the study of political data.•The cross-cultural pragmatic take allows the researcher to reach non-essentialist and non-ethnocentric conclusions.